The present invention relates to children's toys in general, and more particularly to activity dolls.
Various types of activity dolls are already known and readily available on the market. These activity dolls, unlike the conventional dolls in which at most the limbs are movably mounted on the trunk or the eyes open and close in dependence on the position assumed by the doll, perform various activities when activated. Basically, these activity dolls fall into two categories, namely the usually battery-powered automatic dolls which only require the original activation to perform their intended movements or series of movements, and manually operated activity dolls which require a concentrated effort on the part of the children playing with them before performing their desired tasks. The dolls falling into the first category do not require any collaboration on the part of the children as they perform their various activities, such as walking, crawling, swimming or the like, except for the initial activation. On the other hand, the second-mentioned category of the activity dolls, into which the doll of the present invention belongs, is much more challenging and even educational to the children, inasmuch as it teaches them concentration, coordination of movements and the rewards of persistence, that is, the feeling of joy or even pride when the effort is crowned with success.
A particular advantage of the activity dolls or similar toys of the second category is that they improve the skills and mental capabilities of the children in an innocuous, hardly perceptible and, what is more, enjoyable way. This is particularly true when the activity doll or toy engages in an activity or in activities with which the child can identify, especially in an activity which the child encounters quite often in the real life. Inasmuch as children of tender, and even of not so tender years have a tendency to engage in the same or similar activities as those which they see around them, dolls become surrogate children to them so that, ideally, activity dolls should engage in the same activities as real children do.